5G, from the internet of people to "environment connectivity"

Tomas Alonso, director of product engineering for Orange Espana

There is a lot of talk about 5G as something that comes and I think it's important to clarify what we're talking about.The first thing, I think, we can say is that is not a new technology as, in the past, we have been talking about 2G, 3G or more recently 4G, but 5G will be a new technological ecosystem that will change the rules of the game.

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Actually It involves addressing a paradigm shift in mobile networks and, by extension, in the way of offering services to the general public and, for the first time, also in a massive way in many sectors of the industry.In the future, the main use of the network will not only be internet access, but multiple uses derived from the multiconexion d will appear e everything with everything, the "environment connectivity" we say in Orange.

development of virtual networks with 5G

In addition, 5G technology will allow the development of virtual networks adapted to each use case: bandwidth, latency, service differentiation in a world of millions of connected things.what we call "network slicing" We will therefore talk about vertical solutions (Energy, Automotive, Health, Media, Entertainment, etc.) that share one or more specific needs : critical processes in time, automation without time requirements, remote control, connections between companies or within companies and connected personal assets.

From a technological point of view, 5G offers three major quantitative improvement axes :

• First greater capacity and greater speed .A x50 in speeds over the best current networks and a x10 in efficiency of use of the scarcer resource, the spectrum.


• The second is its ability to have millions of connected things .From hundreds/thousands per km2 to millions.


• And last but not least: a network of very high availability and ultra low latency (20 times less than today) that will allow us to also use very low power devices.

In summary, we are in a disruptive change regarding the capabilities we have known so far; we are talking about an end of the cycle (people's internet) and the beginning of a new era of equal or greater magnitude than the current one that will be the internet of connected things.

Well, all this is exciting, but when?

The 2019 will be a year of proofs of concept and pilots , but we can't pretend to start developing this technology with real use cases until 2020. On those dates In addition, events such as the Soccer Eurocup and the Tokyo Olympics are sure to catalyze the first commercial experiences of 5G and the paradigm shift involved.

The industrial telecommunications sector will continue to respond and transform society, and we will see if other industries are equally committed to the digital development of society.This will undoubtedly mark the "when" we will benefit as citizens of this evolution/revolution.

We are missing, finally, how to

Once clarified what and when, we just need to know how we will be able to build all this operators and the sector in general.

If I have to highlight technical success factors would be:

• The development of virtualization .Allow me this word: "softwarization", which becomes the flexible partition of network functionalities for different needs. This will facilitate the programming of networks dynamically or digitally on demand of the use or the client.


• New "Massive MIMO" antennas with ultra-narrow beams aimed at providing the coverage system, high speeds and capacity.Instead of the cell concept, which radiates at a frequency, these antennas they are going to offer us "capacity beams" with different characteristics according to the service we demand at all times.

This paradigm shift will require very high investments, which will not be sustained without a clear commitment to the digitalization of society, administrations and industry. Therefore, it is going to need the collaboration of all to make 5G possible and create the conditions that favor its development. Let's get down to work.